TV over fireplace (1 Viewer)

[JeffSC]

I am building a new house and my wife has agreed that the TV in our family room would be most conducive to furniture placement if it were hung over the fireplace... lucky me! So, needless to say, it will have to be flat screen... but I have a few questions I am hoping someone can shed some light on for me...

1) I am a little unsure about the height of the TV in relation to the furniture and viewing angle... the TV bottom would be about 6' above the floor. For those of you who have your flat screen mounted high like that, do you prefer it over eye level, or not? I assume the mounting bracket has an adjustable angle to keep it angled toward the viewing areas?

2) Can anyone point me to a flat panel mounting bracket spec sheet? I am trying to understand what kind of blocking I should put in the fireplace wall before the drywall goes up to make the mounting as easy and sturdy as possible.

3) Is there any concern with moutning any type of flat panel above a sealed combustion, gas fireplace? There are heat vents from the hearth into the room... would the heat source below be of concern to any type of TV mounted above?

4) If the TV will be mounted over the FP with the top angled toward the viewer, is there any thing that can be done to make the whole over fireplace area more attractive from the side view? Instead of looking at a tilted out screen and the wiring behind it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Personally I think it would really suck to have your display that high. You’d either have to have a recliner for watching it, or most likely live with a constant crick in your neck. That’s just my observation having visited a few hospital rooms in my day.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[DaveHo]

#1 What Wayne said.

#2 I know how much heat my fireplace throws, and there is no way I would ever consider putting anything electronic above it. The paint on the mantel actually gets soft enough from the heat that you can dig your fingernail into it. Do you really want to subject your multi-thousand dollar display to that?

I'd find a different location.

-Dave

 

[Elijah]

I have the same situation. In fact I will be posting some questions of my own on room layout soon in this forum. The only place that works in my room is directly above the fireplace.

1. For heat concerns (plus price/resolution) I have decided to go with a front projection setup. I am not worried about the heat because only the screen will be up there, and with the way that mantles come out from the wall on the top, they naturally force any escaping hot air away from the wall and out into the room. I wouldnt have felt too comfortable putting a 9K plasma up there, but I am confident that a screen should be fine (especially since it will retract into the ceiling when not in use)

2. I am however worried about display hieght, and thusly speaker height in my room. The display will have to be above the top of the mantle and therefore wind up being a little over 6 ft off the ground at the center of the display. With the suggested position for the center speaker being On TOP of the display, that puts my center channel almost on the ceiling, and then to have my mains level with the display, puts them again, 6ft off the floor at the middle of the speaker. I plan on placing my surrounds, and rear surround(s) (probably going with 7.1) lower, more at listening position hieght, however will that throw off the sound balancing. Is some sort of speaker tilting in order on the mains and center ,and will that even effect the sound enough to normalize it.

I went to LaZBoy this weekend to test out their reclinging leather sofas, and liked some of them, however, I am realizing that I may have to recline permanantly in order to get the best viewing position on my screen (you cant tilt a projection screen : )

Even though I am only spending 5000 to 5500, on the whole setup, AND it will be pretty modular, I still want to avoid setting it up just to realize that it wont work like planned.

Any advice from someone who either had or has their display over the fireplace, or several feet (4 or more) above the veiwing position, who can give some firsthand extended viewing/listening experience would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Elijah]

I am probably breaking all forum ettiquite rules by re-posting something that I already posted, however I find it hard to believe that no-one can answer this question as there are MANY experts either by training, or experience who frequent this forum. I am sure this post just worked its way down the list into the great beyond of the HTF Netherworld, however I really would like to see what you guys have to say specifically about the part that I quoted above.

On a self imposed sleep strike until i get an answer... : )

 

[Parker Clack]

Elijah:

If you are going to put your center channel above your screen I would definitely point it downward towards your setting position.

After you have all of your speakers up in the room I would make sure to invest in a dB meter and set up your speakers with it.

Parker

 

[Andrew Stoakley]

I 100% agree with Parker. As someone who deals with sound professionally on a daily basis, buying a dB meter will be the best $45 you've ever spent at Radio Shack

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[Mike D.]

Andrew,

I was just looking at your theater pictures, and I'm wondering if you could give me the dimensions of your room?? I'm just now building one in my basment. My length can only be 15.5 feet, pretty flexible on width (out to about 15 feet, but I don't want a box of course).

Looks nice!

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Andrew Stoakley]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the compliment. It was fun to build and my family really enjoys watching movies and hanging out down there. The room is roughly 10'x 18', give or take a few inches. It's a very nice rectangle with 8' ceilings. If you're looking for rough dimensions, I would go with a comfortable width with the maximum length for how many rows you want, etc. I find the 10' width works well for layout and leaves about a 18" space for a row to get to the back of the room.

Hope that helps. Good luck with the building - hopefully you will keep us all updated with lots of pictures!! Give me a shout if you have any other questions.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Elijah,

Although your set-up is a bit unusual, it should work fine. Just make sure that all the front speakers are angled downward towards the seating position. If possible you should invert them; that will put the tweeters closer to ear level and furthest from the ceiling, to minimize reflections from it.

The only real concern I have is the plan to put the rear speakers down low. If you can, go ahead and get them up higher, to make the whole system as uniform as possible.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Elijah]

Thanks Wayne, that is sort of what I was looking for. I was going along the lines of thinking that by keeping them down lower (more where they are "supposed" to be), that I could at least have part of the system correctly installed (once I calibrate of course).

But for uniformities sake (and appearance I might add), I will try them out all up at the same height. I am only slightly dissapointed at my room's shape as I have plans for a Garage/Dedicated HT, somewhere in the next couple of summers. So for now I live by the lyrics to a Radiohead song "The best you can is good enough". Heck thats gonna be my new sig : )

 

[WayneLVS]

I think it's a little high, but probably not enough to cause a fued between husband/wife.

All wives want tv's above fireplaces, my opinion is thats the worst place for one, but sometimes we just have to give in to they're demands..........better to have a high mounted tv than to sleep on the sofa......hahaha

 

[WayneLVS]

What is it with builders nowadays always putting the fireplace in the room most likely to be used as a tv room or HT?? And then they have to locate in an area that leaves no other area available for a/v equip.

I think a fireplace would be more suited to the dining room, den, or master bedroom.............

 

[GreggOzz]

I too need some help here as well. My wife 'insisted' on putting our TV above the fireplace - but whats worse is that it's in the corner! HELP. We don't have much room on the right side (glass slider), so it looks like the front left and right will be in the ceiling. How will this sound? Any thoughts would be great. I plan on setting up the DVD and receiver and playing a movie to see how they sound in the ceiling before I sheetrock.

Thanks,

Gregg

 

[Elijah]

I have the same situation. In fact I will be posting some questions of my own on room layout soon in this forum. The only place that works in my room is directly above the fireplace.

1. For heat concerns (plus price/resolution) I have decided to go with a front projection setup. I am not worried about the heat because only the screen will be up there, and with the way that mantles come out from the wall on the top, they naturally force any escaping hot air away from the wall and out into the room. I wouldnt have felt too comfortable putting a 9K plasma up there, but I am confident that a screen should be fine (especially since it will retract into the ceiling when not in use)

2. I am however worried about display hieght, and thusly speaker height in my room. The display will have to be above the top of the mantle and therefore wind up being a little over 6 ft off the ground at the center of the display. With the suggested position for the center speaker being On TOP of the display, that puts my center channel almost on the ceiling, and then to have my mains level with the display, puts them again, 6ft off the floor at the middle of the speaker. I plan on placing my surrounds, and rear surround(s) (probably going with 7.1) lower, more at listening position hieght, however will that throw off the sound balancing. Is some sort of speaker tilting in order on the mains and center ,and will that even effect the sound enough to normalize it.

I went to LaZBoy this weekend to test out their reclinging leather sofas, and liked some of them, however, I am realizing that I may have to recline permanantly in order to get the best viewing position on my screen (you cant tilt a projection screen : )

Even though I am only spending 5000 to 5500, on the whole setup, AND it will be pretty modular, I still want to avoid setting it up just to realize that it wont work like planned.

Any advice from someone who either had or has their display over the fireplace, or several feet (4 or more) above the veiwing position, who can give some firsthand extended viewing/listening experience would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thought I'd necro-thread this one and give an update after ~20 years in the same house.

I wound up going with Plasma TV's over the fireplace and have had zero issues with heat, even though we run a woodstove insert in the fireplace ALL winter.

Also, after ~20 years I'm still just running 2.1 on my original Paradigm Cinema speakers (even though I have the ADP surrounds for side and rear....one of these days I'll get them installed : )

Also, we just threw away the LaZBoy!